


Burning Up

by robertstanion



Series: PEIPHQ Shenanigans [11]
Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid
Genre: Date Night, Fluff, M/M, Sickfic, blimmy the cat makes his return, mild mentions of vomit, spacey! John McNamara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:48:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27529483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robertstanion/pseuds/robertstanion
Summary: john mcnamara doesnt show up to work or answers his emails but it turns out he just has the flu and a headache but it doesn't excuse the panic attack xander lee had on the way over to his
Relationships: Xander Lee/John McNamara
Series: PEIPHQ Shenanigans [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1764349
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Burning Up

**Author's Note:**

> so any tws: mild mentions of vomiting but that is it. and i promise it's mentioned twice in two sentences, no detail, nothing
> 
> ahah they simp anyway hello hq series im home. sorry i fucked off to write part 4 of SYPF for a bit but i made a spontaneous sickfic based on the fact i had coronavirus 2.0 (a cold) last week and this idea came to me in a dream (no it didn't) so i wrote it (it came to me on a tuesday night) so i hope you enjoy

They hadn’t expected to go on a date. It just…happened. They both found that loosening each other up and winding down at one of their houses made a lot more sense than remaining stressed at work due to the new mission that was kicking everyone’s asses. It left everyone feeling the same: tired, crying and/or injured. General John McNamara was _not_ exempt from this, and neither was his super-hot scientist boyfriend. They were spending a suspicious amount of time together, and John had to keep reminding himself he wasn’t out to the precinct yet.

Sometimes, he wanted to pounce on Xander to gain his attention. He wanted to grab his collar, and kiss him there and then, but he didn’t know if he had that confidence, let alone if Xander was ready to tell anybody. If John wasn’t so nervous about his true identity, then of course he could openly talk about it and express how he truly felt towards his boyfriend. Something in him stopped him from doing so. He knew it was the constant reminder of being in church and his father telling him homosexuality was a sin which led to him getting kicked out to begin with, and yet, he hid it away. He had to. He wouldn’t be as strong otherwise.

Xander changed him slightly. His life had been very mundane beforehand with a tight schedule that couldn’t be moved around. Wake up at 5, go to the kitchen and make black coffee, feed the cats, make breakfast, wash dishes, change for work, go to work, come home at 7, feed cats again, shower, start on dinner, check the news, eat dinner, clean dishes, put cats to bed, go to bed, read up on Power Of The Human Heart, go to sleep. And now…

Now there was the brightest colour in his life that blew away the darkness. He sat down for his interview with the widest smile on his face and the room turned golden, and from then on out, colour followed him everywhere. His lab which had originally been only a black colour scheme suddenly had tones of blues in the lights and in the floors, and his office had deep hues of browns scattered around, not to excuse the pride flag that hung on his back wall. Xander Lee had to be the walking physical form of a rainbow, and John knew that Xander was aware of that.

So, when they first started dating, John had a lot of adjusting to do. He’d never been an embodiment of anything. He’d always lived his life professionally because it was all he knew. He was cheap and grey. Then Xander started painting in his features, brightening his wardrobe, and John knew he’d found the right guy. Xander was his everything, and they hadn’t been together too long, and he was scared of being in a committed relationship for it was one of his first where the other person truly cared, but he didn’t regret it.

And there they were. They were in the local restaurant, nothing too fancy because it _was_ still Hatchetfield, but they weren’t in their uniforms, so it must have been a special occasion. They were eating their meals, having a cheap glass of alcohol, and they let themselves get lost in the buzzing in the room. John wanted to talk to him, though. He had trouble doing that, if he was being honest. He couldn’t form his thoughts, so it was difficult, so he ended up blurting out the first thing he could think of. “I don’t like being touched.”

That caused Xander to choke on the sip of the drink he took and set the glass down as he reached for the napkin from beside him, wiping his mouth before smiling at John. “I don’t think that’s true, John. Not from what I know.” He shrugged and returned to his food, and John kicked him under the table.

“I should have made myself clearer, I’m sorry…” he ran a hand through his hair and stabbed at his food with his fork, cutting it up. Xander glanced over and raised an eyebrow.

“You have a knife.”

“Knives are useless. The side of a fork can do exactly the same time. It just takes longer unless you’re efficient, such as myself.” He scrunched his nose up before returning to his original point. “I meant when I’m sick…I think it comes from the trauma that whenever I was sick when I was a kid, my dad would send me into school anyway.” He shrugged as if it was nothing. “One time I threw up on the carpet in the middle of a presentation. It was in that moment I realised that making yourself pitiful while sick is bad, and also, anyone trying to make themselves pitiful for you while you’re sick is also bad.”

“Babe, do you have opinions for everything?” Xander asked, laughing at his boyfriend, and John nodded.

“Yes. I think it’s incredibly wrong to be using a knife when there’s a fork in your hand-“

“At least I have a phone and aren’t reliant on an analogue watch even though I failed math in school which was probably the key fact to letting me know I was gay and I still suppressed it for another four years-“

“I got kicked out, okay?” John asked, but he began to smile as well. “Dammit, now I can’t come up with a comeback…you really got me there…”

“I know.” Xander smiled angelically as he finished off his food and took a sip of his drink, looking at John.

“But I don’t like being touched when I’m sick…I get really high fevers and become very very spacey apparently. I don’t know, I never remember it. The only exception to people touching me when I’m sick are my cats because they are the prides and joys of my life, and also people I deeply care about and love…love mainly being platonic, by the way.”

“Noted,” Xander said and watched as John finished his own food. “So, Mr McNamara. Seeing as I won the comeback fight of the night, I’ll pay the bill. We’re walking back to my place. It’s nearer.”

“Bastard,” he whispered, but stood, grabbing his coat. “I’m going for a cigarette. I’ll meet you out the front.”

* * *

After that, John did get quieter, but it wasn’t out of the ordinary for him. He was a quiet man. He liked to process things in his own way, in his own time, and nobody really questioned it. His mind worked in a way he’d never be able to figure out, but it never really mattered. He got the job done efficiently in maximum time. But lately, what was needed to be done wasn’t getting done. Things ran slower, and there suddenly was no order to the precinct at all. Xander, confused, sent an email to John, not realising the light was off in his office. He walked to his lab and sat down, able to get on with his own tasks, but he often went back to see if John replied to his email or not. It wasn’t like John to ignore one, so when he didn’t, Xander knew something was wrong.

He tried to ring him on his break, but there was no answer. No email reply, no answer to the phone call, and Xander’s thoughts were confirmed. Worrying for the worst, he finished up what he was doing in the lab, assisted some of the other agents with what they needed help with before telling Schaffer to lock up. He needed to get to John to see if he was okay, but he couldn’t explicitly announce them. Not when John still wasn’t comfortable with telling people.

As discretely as possible, he flashed his eyes a vibrant shade of blue so his door locked. It was cheating, to use his powers to do such a simple task, but when John was possibly in danger, it was hard not to waste any time on fumbling for his keys in his pocket. Nobody could know he had powers either, but it didn’t stop him from using them. He just had to be careful. He had to be careful about keeping his relationship a secret, and also hiding his entire identity. That was the goal, and so far, it was working.

He ran out to his car and got in, locking up, driving over to his boyfriend’s. His entire mind was racing with negative possibilities. Agents had been asking him if he knew where he’d been, and he’d pointed them in direction to his office, but they’d said they checked, and he hadn’t been there. He hadn’t shown up at work or replied to Xander’s emails. The entire thing wasn’t adding up, especially when it came to his John who worked full time with no stopping and, if it came down to it, wouldn’t leave his precinct unattended. Something definitely had to be wrong.

He arrived shortly after setting off from PEIP. He grabbed his keys and found the one that gave him access to the house. He twisted it until it clicked before opening the door, stepping inside. He was met with the familiar mewling of one of his four cats, and he smiled, comforted by the fact some things were normal. He crouched down to it and scratched under his chin. In reality, he couldn’t remember what his name was, so he didn’t try to mention it. “Where’s John, bud?” He asked, before realising his power could show him anyway. He closed his eyes and opened them, to see crystals outside of John’s door. He sighed and stood up again, walking up to John’s room.

He knocked gently just in case, but came no reply except a harsh growling, preferably from one of the other cats. He pushed open the door and his heart fluttered at the sight. He shut the door and approached his boyfriend, who lay with his eyes closed in bed, a ginger and white cat curled up in the empty space beside him. He looked…oddly peaceful. As long as he was okay.

His alarm was still going off, though. He grabbed John’s phone and switched it off, seeing the various amounts of texts he’d sent throughout the day out of concern. He felt himself flush at his past panic, placing a hand on John’s shoulder, shaking him gently to try and get him to wake.

“’M awake…” he mumbled, shifting under the covers. His eyes remained shut, but he did lean into the anonymous hand that had since been placed on his hand. Then he halted his thoughts. He lived alone. Aside from the four cats he cherished, why was another human in his house? His eyes shot open, and he sat bolt upright, before his head cleared, and he listened to the other voice.

“Hey, hey, hey. It’s Xander.” The physicist placed a hand on John’s upper back after noticing his slightly dazed actions, and he didn’t want him falling. He climbed on to the bed and sat in front of him. He watched as John’s eyes landed on him and smiled as the blues examined him slowly to prove he was there. The hand that had been on his back moved to cup his cheek, as he looked over John’s face. His eyes were clouded over, and his nose was slightly redder than usual. His lips were pale too. At the touch of Xander’s hand, John flinched slightly, and the cat meowed again.

“Ah, fuck. I forgot to ring in…”

“Why would you ring in?” He asked before John placed a finger up to silence Xander as he quickly turned and sneezed into his elbow. Xander’s heart fluttered again, not denying that John’s sneeze was the cutest noise he’d ever heard. “John…are you…sick?”

“Only a cold…” he sniffled and grabbed a tissue, blowing his nose, throwing it in the trash can beside him. Then he smiled and grabbed Xander, pulling him down as he settled back under the covers.

Xander fell on top of John’s chest and smiled, rolling off of him to lie beside him. Even then, John shuffled into his arms, wrapping his arms around Xander tightly. Xander, sympathetically, decided on patting John’s back, not quite sure what he was doing. “So, if it’s only a cold, then why didn’t you ring in sick? You scared half the precinct to death…”

“Light hurts.” He pointed to his head as he looked at him. “Headache.” He burrowed deep into Xander’s chest and closed his eyes, pulling the duvet and blanket over his shoulder as the cat meowed once more in protest. “Bring me my son, Xander.”

“Which one?”

“Blimmy.”

“John…please don’t take this the wrong way, but I can’t remember what the names of your sons are.”

“Well, when we get married, they’ll be our sons so remember them. Blimmy, Manny, Bertie and Matt. And I wish to have Blimmy with me. He gets jealous, the little shit.”

Almost on cue, the ginger and white cat climbed on top of John’s side and meowed loudly into his ear, causing John to jump. He plucked an arm away from Xander to move his cat off of him, laying him in the middle of him and Xander. Xander, while he watched as John worked, chose to ignore the use of _‘when we get married’,_ trying not to get his hopes up. “How much sleep did you get last night?”

“Mm...not much…threw up.”

“Sweetheart, I’m pretty sure you have the flu if you threw up.”

“Nah, bullshit,” John replied, shifting back under the covers. “You’re warm, Zee…”

“And you’re fucking freezing.” He shook his head and felt his forehead with the back of his hand. “And you’re burning up…” He wrapped his arms around him gently again as John mumbled yet again.

“Don’t feel hot though...or sexy.”

Xander laughed then and kissed his forehead lightly, looking down to him, carefully moving some stray blonde hairs that fell out of the ponytail John had thrown his hair up in out of his face. “Do you want to try and get some sleep for me?”

“Yes. But only if you stay and never ever leave me.”

“I might leave to go and get you some medication, and also to get you some food. But apart from that, I’m here forever.” He kissed John’s hair lightly, and John giggled, tilting his head up, kissing the bottom part of Xander’s face. Xander whined in protest and tried to swat him away but didn’t hide the obvious smile that had formed. “Now you’re going to get _me_ sick!”

“Sharing is caring,” John said seriously before kissing Xander properly. “Okay, I’m happy now. Blimmy, don’t attack my favourite boyfriend. Goodnight, Xander.”

“Goodnight, John,” Xander said quietly as he watched John burrow back into him. He sighed happily. This was where he found himself wanting to be when him and John had first gotten together back in Vegas. He wanted to care for him all year round no matter what the consequences were. He was committed to him, and he would until the day he died. He never usually fell in love, but there was something about him that was different. He’d known he was in love with him for quite some time, but he couldn’t tell him yet. He might get overwhelmed, and also, he was sick, and had a bad headache. He probably wouldn’t remember this tomorrow.

In that moment, Xander remembered something vital. Something that John had said on their date not too long ago, and it bought a smile to his face once more. _‘I don’t like being touched when I’m sick… The only exception to people touching me when I’m sick are my cats because they are the prides and joys of my life, and also people I deeply care about and love.”_ The smile on his face brightened as he made himself more comfortable, being careful not to disturb Blimmy, who’d since fallen asleep, and also John. “I love you too,” Xander whispered, holding John in the comfortable silence in the room, listening to the buzzing world of Hatchetfield outside. John would get better, and Xander knew this was confirmation they were in it for the long term, and he couldn’t be happier about that fact if he tried.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope u enjoyed and if u didnt thats okay but plz keep comments respectful minus the criticism thank you xoxo - blimmy the seventh jks its still op


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